Those three Impermanences and the serpent-faced Impermanence were none other than Xu Ying, Yuan Weiyang, Xiao Bo, and Yuan Qi. Yuan Qi's physique was simply too massive. Even transformed into an Impermanence, he had spent 120 years slithering on the ground and felt awkward standing upright. Moving on all fours was much more comfortable.
These Nuo masters had infiltrated the Underworld by disguising themselves as Impermanences to harvest yang qi. If they could enter, they naturally had a way out.
The false Impermanence trembled, forced to lead the way. "You won't get out like this! That great bell and the big fellow behind you are far too conspicuous. Once we reach the outside, my sect will notice, and we'll all die!"
Xu Ying knew he spoke the truth. Earlier, when a few masks had been ripped off, their companions had killed them instantly. This proved that infiltrating the Underworld to harvest yang qi was an absolute secret operation.
Xu Ying's group would be impossible to miss. Leaving like this would guarantee discovery.
Xiao Bo declared proudly, "A minor sect like that can't be too formidable. At most, they might have a few Great Nuo Masters. Once we're out, merely mentioning the Yuan family name should be enough to make their sect leader kneel in greeting."
Xu Ying asked, "Who are you people?"
The false Impermanence hesitated, then confessed, "We are the Cangwu Sect of Southern Xiang. We were commissioned to enter the Underworld and gather yang qi."
Xiao Bo, well-versed in matters of the martial world, furrowed his brow. "The Cangwu Sect is a Nuo master sect based on Mount Jiuyi. They don't possess many refined Nuo techniques—just a small regional sect. We can go there and simply announce our names."
Yuan Weiyang shook her head. "Xiao Bo, a small regional sect wouldn't have this many Impermanence masks."
Every Impermanence mask required hunting and killing an Impermanence ghost god in the Underworld. This time, the Cangwu Sect had sent two to three hundred Nuo masters, each wearing a mask. A minor sect simply couldn't possess such immense resources and finances!
The false Impermanence said with a trembling voice, "These Impermanence masks were sent from the capital—not from our Cangwu Sect! A great figure from the capital ordered us to enter the Underworld and gather yang qi. If we refused, our entire sect would be annihilated!"
Xu Ying and Yuan Weiyang exchanged glances, both showing surprise.
A great figure from the capital had come to Mount Jiuyi in Yongzhou, found the Cangwu Sect, and ordered them to harvest yang qi from ghost children in the Underworld?
This whole affair reeked of something sinister.
Suddenly, a voice came from behind Xu Ying: "Why would a great figure from the capital want you to harvest yang qi?"
Xu Ying's scalp tingled, and Yuan Weiyang couldn't help but shudder. "Is that the Zhou ancestor?"
Xu Ying turned to find a white-browed youth standing behind them. It was none other than Zhou Qiyun, the ancestor of the Zhou family.
Yuan Weiyang turned around, breaking into a cold sweat.
Xiao Bo clenched his fist, thinking: *The old Zhou ghost has tracked us down! Even if it means death, I must protect the young master!*
Yet he knew that even in death, he couldn't protect Yuan Weiyang!
In front of this Zhou ancestor, his life held no sacrificial value whatsoever!
Xu Ying feigned delight, overcome with emotion. "Master Zhou! We've been waiting for you! We were blown here by the aftershock of your techniques and have been waiting so long. We thought something had happened to you! If you hadn't come, we would have been lost in the Underworld forever!"
The white-browed youth, Zhou Qiyun, replied coolly, "I followed the trail left by the great bell. It took some time. If you had stayed where you were, finding you would have been much simpler."
Xu Ying, without a hint of shame on his pale face, said, "I was worried you wouldn't find us, so I had the bell leave a trail on the ground."
The Zhou ancestor was silent for a moment, then asked, "Do Nuo master masks make your skin thicker as well?"
Xu Ying laughed heartily, then turned back to question the false Impermanence. "What purpose does this great figure from the capital have here?"
The false Impermanence replied, "I heard from a senior brother that the great figure came to extend their life."
"Extend their life?"
Even Zhou Qiyun froze, momentarily forgetting to pursue the matter of Xu Ying's escape attempt. "A great figure from the capital has come to Yongzhou to extend their life? How?"
The false Impermanence said, "I heard from a senior sister that when she delivered the yang qi, she saw the great figure from the capital consume it, and their complexion improved greatly. That person also cultivated some technique that required massive amounts of yang qi daily."
Zhou Qiyun murmured, "Interesting, interesting... Which old friend from the capital has come to Cangwu? I want to undergo my tribulation here in Yongzhou. Why didn't they send word before rushing over?"
A flash of killing intent passed through his eyes.
For the sake of his tribulation, he would stop at nothing. Any expert who came to Yongzhou at this time would be his enemy, a hidden threat that must be eliminated!
"Xu Ying, do you have any more Nuo master masks?" Zhou Qiyun asked. "Lend me one."
Xu Ying produced an Impermanence mask. Zhou Qiyun placed it on his face, and his appearance immediately transformed into an Impermanence.
With a light flick of his finger, a Nuo technique flew forth and struck Yuan Qi. The massive serpent's body immediately shrank, quickly reducing to the size of a normal Impermanence.
Zhou Qiyun frowned upon seeing Yuan Qi still crawling on the ground. "Stand up. Stop crawling."
Yuan Qi stood, took two steps, then collapsed, resuming his crawl.
Zhou Qiyun took a long, deep breath, suppressing his irritation. *If I hadn't truly owed his grandfather a favor, I would have killed him right now!*
Years ago, he had framed Yuan Qi's grandfather, and feeling guilty, he reached out and removed Yuan Qi's mask, restoring him to his normal size. "The reason you can't change your form is because your cultivation base is insufficient for such a massive body. I'll lend you a hand to help you transform."
Before Yuan Qi could respond, his soul emerged, palm pressing down on the top of Yuan Qi's head.
Yuan Qi felt a torrential surge of power flood into his body. His cultivation rose rapidly, increasing two to threefold in an instant!
Zhou Qiyun withdrew his soul. "Now try activating your technique."
Yuan Qi activated the True Cultivation of the Ba Snake. His body suddenly expanded, transforming into a hundred-zhang giant serpent that swallowed clouds and exhaled mist. Then it rapidly shrank, becoming barely a foot long—tiny and exquisite!
Yuan Qi was both startled and delighted, hurrying to express his thanks.
Zhou Qiyun said coolly, "It's the merit your ancestor accumulated. No need to thank me."
Xu Ying was extremely envious and was about to speak when Zhou Qiyun shook his head. "Your ancestors accumulated no such merit."
Xu Ying abandoned any thought of asking for a similar infusion of power.
Yuan Qi leaped onto Xu Ying's shoulder, hiding inside his collar.
Zhou Qiyun approached the great bell. Xu Ying's heart tightened, but Zhou Qiyun merely said, "This bell has sustained severe injuries. That it wasn't shattered to pieces is truly remarkable."
His palm lightly struck the bell, landing exactly where the handprint of the girl in the coffin had been—though that mark had since been filled by the copper pillar of the Locust Blossom Palace, making it invisible to the naked eye.
Zhou Qiyun's palm seemed to be attacked, jerking upward in alarm. "What a peculiar divine ability!"
The great bell suddenly shrank, spinning rapidly before flying into the back of Xu Ying's head, calling out: "A-Ying! That stingy Zhou Qiyun actually helped heal some of my injuries!"
Zhou Qiyun raised his palm to find strange patterns flickering across it—the residual divine ability from the handprint had invaded his palm!
"The palmprint of a supreme Qi cultivator!"
Zhou Qiyun was secretly shocked, glancing at Xu Ying. This young man was skilled at deciphering Qi cultivator techniques, possessed this extraordinary great bell, and now the bell bore a palmprint left by a supreme cultivator. He couldn't help but wonder if Xu Ying was truly just a snake catcher from Lingling in Yongzhou.
He clenched his fist tightly, erasing the residual power from his palm. "Now we can enter Cangwu without attracting attention. Let's go."
The false Impermanence hurried forward to lead the way.
The fact that Zhou Qiyun hadn't seized the great bell for himself surprised Xu Ying immensely.
After all, Zhou Qiyun had been stripping everything of value along the way—even the foundations of the Water Mouth Temple and the Locust Blossom Palace. The great bell was worth far more than both places combined. Yet Zhou Qiyun had shown no interest!
"Xu Ying, I can tolerate you running away twice."
Zhou Qiyun raised two fingers. "But if there's a third time, I will kill you and take your treasures. I have my eye on that bell."
Xu Ying smiled. "This isn't my bell. It's my friend."
"Friends with a magical artifact?"
Zhou Qiyun looked surprised, then shook his head. "If it were me, I would have erased its spiritual consciousness. An artifact is just a tool. Having a mind of its own only gets in the way!"
Along the way, they encountered more false Impermanences—also members of the Cangwu Sect—all looking dejected. They had been ordered into the Underworld to harvest yang qi from ghost children, but Xu Ying's group had disrupted their efforts, yielding minimal results. They feared punishment upon their return.
Xu Ying and his companions blended into the crowd, following everyone to a canyon. Looking up, they could see only a thin sliver of sky above, unable to determine how high the canyon walls truly were.
As Xu Ying gazed upward, a thought suddenly surfaced in his mind: *Cangwu Abyss? This is the Cangwu Abyss?*
Ahead, Nuo masters wearing Impermanence masks pressed close to the canyon walls, navigating a narrow, winding path. Beneath their feet lay an abyss of unfathomable depth.
The cliff faces above were equally unscalable. Walking here, even Xu Ying—with his mastery of the Sword-Flying Art—felt his heart pounding.
Suddenly, a thunderous roar erupted from below, deafening in its intensity. Xu Ying looked down to see both walls of the abyss blazing with blinding heat, scorched to a golden-red glow. The moment his eyes met the depths, his pupils contracted involuntarily.
On the narrow path, everyone's faces were bathed in the crimson light.
Within the abyss, the world boundaries of the Underworld and the mortal realm continued their thunderous collision. Hot air surged upward continuously, its power terrifying.
Xu Ying's mind stirred—he had seen this before, when he had first developed his Celestial Eye and witnessed the abyss formed by the collision of worlds on either bank of the River Styx!
*Back then, I also saw rock-like bodies moving in the abyss, but they were too far away to make out clearly. Now that I'm here at Cangwu Abyss, I should be able to see much more.*
With this thought, guided by an inexplicable impulse, he activated his Celestial Eye and peered into the abyss.
Suddenly, he saw them again—the massive bodies at the deepest point of the abyss, constantly writhing like bedrock!
This time he saw more clearly. Those writhing rocks looked like stone, yet also resembled rock-like muscle tissue!
At that moment, the layers of muscle tissue suddenly parted, revealing a colossal eye.
Xu Ying's vision spun, his eyes going black. When he came to, he found his body already hanging over the cliff edge, nearly falling into the abyss!
Yuan Weiyang had grabbed his back, preventing him from plummeting.
Xu Ying broke into a cold sweat and thanked Yuan Weiyang.
He looked back into the abyss—the rocks were just rocks again. No eye.
"Looking at what cannot be seen, listening to what cannot be heard—both invite disaster," Zhou Qiyun said as he walked past, his tone indifferent.
Xu Ying caught up with him. "Master Zhou, have you heard and seen them too?"
Zhou Qiyun was silent for a moment. "Qi cultivation requires comprehending the Dao Manifestation. Hidden Vision also demands understanding of Dao Manifestations. When I was comprehending the Dao that pervades heaven and earth, I entered the Dao too deeply, and strange whispers filled my ears, as if calling to me. I also sensed inexplicably powerful presences. Each time I tried to listen more carefully or feel more deeply, I encountered great terror."
Xu Ying's heart skipped. "Great terror?"
Zhou Qiyun didn't elaborate. "You'll understand once you Enter the Dao yourself."
Yuan Weiyang walked to his side and said quietly, "Master Zhou is right. When you Enter the Dao, you do hear strange whispers."
Xu Ying asked, "You've Entered the Dao?"
Yuan Weiyang replied, "I entered the Dao once while cultivating the Celestial Sensation of the Primordial Dao at home. How many times have you Entered the Dao, Demon King Xu?"
Xu Ying said sheepishly, "I've only Entered the Dao once. Ha ha, I wonder what the weather is like outside?"
In his mind, the great bell yawned lazily. "Last time you broke through to the Gate-Tapping stage, if you had focused on comprehending the Heavenly Mysterious Root, you probably would have Entered the Dao once."
At that moment, threads suddenly descended from above the canyon. The Nuo masters each grabbed one and were pulled upward, vanishing quickly into the sky.
Zhou Qiyun looked up, his eyes gleaming. "I didn't expect to find such a direct path to the Underworld within Mount Jiuyi. Let's go—we're heading up!"
Xu Ying, Yuan Weiyang, and Xiao Bo each seized a thread. A pulling force suddenly tugged them, and with a gentle shake, they were flung up over the canyon!
Wind whistled past their ears as they flew upward an unknown distance. Suddenly, they seemed to pass through some invisible barrier, and brilliant light flooded their vision.
A whooshing sound, and Xu Ying landed to find green mountains and clear waters all around him.
Zhou Qiyun landed as well. Before he could take in his surroundings, a voice filled with authority boomed from a distant hall: "Why didn't you gather any yang qi this time? Does your entire Cangwu Sect want your heads cut off as a sacrifice to heaven?"
Hearing this voice, Zhou Qiyun's heart pounded wildly. Disbelief spread across his face.
"The—the Emperor!"
He nearly cried out in shock. "The one who came to Cangwu Sect to extend his life is His Majesty, the Sacred Divine Emperor Zhangwu!"